- Game Show Congress
The Game Show Congress is an annual meeting of industry professionals, former contestants and fans of game shows. For 2007, the congress was divided between two locations, a "boot camp" training session in the
New York City metro area and an awards banquet in theLos Angeles metro area. During the luncheon, theRalph Edwards Career Community Service Award and theBill Cullen Career Achievement Award were presented.Past Congresses
The first Game Show Congress was held in
Boulder, Colorado as an outgrowth of the University of Colorado Program Council Trivia Bowl and was spearheaded through the efforts of Paul Bailey. Featured guests included Steve Beverly as well asWho Wants to Be a Millionaire winners Ed Toutant and Lori Bailey plus multi-show winner Leszek Pawlowicz.The second Congress moved to
Las Vegas, Nevada and was held in conjunction with an open quiz bowl tournament operated byTesting Recall About Strange Happenings (T.R.A.S.H). Featured speakers included formerStarcade host Mark Richards, all-time Who Wants to Be a Millionaire winnerKevin Olmstead , a presentation fromNTN Buzztime , a presentation about the World's Largest Trivia Contest staged each year by 90FM inStevens Point, Wisconsin , and the first appearance of The Game Show Round, a fast-paced game with elements of over 30 different game shows from around the world.Moving to
Burbank, California in 2004, the Congress moved to a multi-day format and added additional competition formats such as Paul Paquet's SmartyPants tournament and The Game Show Home Game Tournament. There was also an officialJeopardy! test and tryout. This session also marked the first time the Ralph Edwards Career Community Service Award and the Bill Cullen Career Achievement Award were presented. The Edwards award was accepted by son Gary Edwards on Ralph's behalf, while the Cullen award went posthumously to Bill Cullen. Guest speakers honoring Edwards and Cullen includedBob Barker ,Dick Clark ,Jack Narz ,Tom Kennedy ,Jayne Meadows andBetty White .Don Pardo andKitty Carlisle also gave taped tributes.The 2005 session was heavily devoted to a remembrance of the long time show
Concentration and featured panel discussions with producer Norman Blumenthal and undefeated champion Ruth Horowitz.Monty Hall was presented with the Edwards Award recognizing his long career as both a game show host, producer and philanthropist while the Cullen Award was presented to brothersJack Narz andTom Kennedy . Guest speakers included comedianShelley Berman , actress-comediennePat Carroll , announcerJohn Harlan , modern era emceesTodd Newton and Guillermo Huesca, producer Stu Billett, and talent coordinator Jean Brown.Betty White ,Carol Merrill andMichael Davies gave taped tributes [Game Show Congress 4 Program] .Music was added to the mix for the 2006 session as the world's only game show cover band, the Ceramic Dalmatians, made their first live performance.
J. Keith van Straaten hosted and Jim Newman directed an edition of "What's My Line, Live", with panelistsBetsy Palmer ,Frank Nicotero ,Sarah Purcell and Stuart Shostak, while the mystery guest wasShirley Jones . There was an official test and tryout for the show "1 vs 100 ". A panel discussion "Working as a Game Show Host and Game Show Announcer" was led by Laura Chambers ("Weakest Link", "Greed") withSarah Purcell , Larry Anderson,Burton Richardson ,Jack Narz ,Johnny Gilbert . Anderson and Richardson also teamed up as host and announcer for a charity fundraiser game of "Buzzer Battle" benefiting the AIDS Research Alliance.Bob Harris read from his book "Prisoner of Trebekestan". Tic Tac Dough hostWink Martindale , producer Ron Greenberg andThom McKee participated in a panel on the show, and there was an industry panel discussion moderated by TV host & producer Roger Rose, featuring participants Bob Boden (VP Programming, Fox Reality Channel), Stu Billet (Executive Producer, "The People's Court "), Harry Friedman (Executive Producer, "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!"), Michael Brockman (former VP Programming CBS, ABC, andGoodson-Todman Productions ), andScott St. John (Executive Producer, "Deal or No Deal "). Long timeHollywood Squares host Peter Marshall was presented with the Cullen Award and William Morris executive Vice President Mark Itkin was presented with the Edwards Award. Guest speakers includedRose Marie ,Betsy Palmer ,Fred Silverman ,Johnny Gilbert ,Tom Kennedy ,Kathy Garver , Harry Friedman and Al Howard [Game Show Congress 5 Program] .The 2007 Congress was split into two sessions, once in
New York City and the other inHollywood , California. The New York session was primarily devoted to playing games and served as the North American Host of theInternational Quizzing Association 's 2007 championship. The Los Angeles session featured a tribute to those game show icons who had passed in the previous year (Kitty Carlisle ,Tom Poston andCharles Nelson Reilly ), speeches by Thom McKee andCharlie O'Donnell to honor Ralph Edwards Award winner Wink Martindale plus speeches byBetty White and Sande Stewart to honor Bill Cullen Award winnerBob Stewart . White was also the winner of the newly createdArlene Francis Award honoring lifetime achievement as a game show panelist [Game Show Congress 6 Program] . The Ceramic Dalmatians again performed during the event. Notable attendees includedDon Pardo ,June Lockhart , andBetsy Palmer Bill Cullen Award
This award is given to the industry figure as a recognition of lifetime achievement in the area of game shows.
*2004:
Bill Cullen
*2005: The Narz Brothers (Jack and Jim)
*2006: Peter Marshall
*2007:Bob Stewart Ralph Edwards Award
This award is given to the industry figure who has contributed both to the game show community as well as the world at large:
*2004:
Ralph Edwards
*2005:Monty Hall
*2006: Mark Itkin
*2007:Wink Martindale Arlene Francis Award
This award is given to a panelist in honor of his or her lifetime achievement as a game show panelist:
*2007:
Betty White External links
* [http://www.gameshowcongress.com Game Show Congress]
* [http://www.mikeburger.com/gsr.html Game Show Round]Footnotes
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